The filmography of French director René Clément is inextricably tied to the Second World War, a conflict that provided the backdrop for some of his most celebrated works. His feature debut, the 1946 epic *Battle of the Rails*, was produced while the war still raged, capturing the urgency and chaos of the era. Among his subsequent films, none rival the scale or ambition of *Is Paris Burning?* (1966), a sprawling epic…






